My journey down the aisle and life… in southern style!

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Ryan and I are still patiently waiting on wedding photos but I figured this is the perfect time to indulge on my bridal portraits and that day.

I decided to do my portraits in October of last year. I know that seems really early since our wedding day was not until May, but trust me North Carolina weather is crazy!! Looking back, I made a great decision! The weather was perfect, I only wish I had waited for more cotton to bloom!! Either way, it was a very long day. My mother was out of town for work in Texas and was unable to come to assist and watch, thankfully Ryan’s mom and oldest sister were happy to help.

My pictures were taken near a cotton field near…. McDonalds! You can only imagine the looks I got while people were walking in & out and going to the drive thru!! I honestly did not care, and I think they turned out amazing! Here are my favorites!

My dress was magical and I loved it from top to bottom. There is nothing that I would have changed about it at all. I am hoping (fingers crossed) we are going to get wedding pictures this weekend and I will be sure to post them as soon as I can! I am patiently waiting 🙂

I know I haven’t posted in almost a month. I was trying to hold out until I got my wedding pictures back… but I think I have another week or two left until I get them. Although not much has happened since our wedding day, and I want to wait until I get pictures back to write a big re-cap of the day; I will share what pictures we have and fill you in on normal life!

We were so blessed with a WONDERFUL photographer, every one of you should check her out! Her name is Amber and she is absolutely amazing. She is wonderful to work with and has such passion for her work, it is very refreshing. Anyway, her business is Amber Rhodes Photography… check her out! If you are local around NC/SC she is truly a gem, her prices are very competitive and you will not be disappointed. Here are the ones we have so far.

I can honestly say that my wedding day was the BEST day of my life. It went by so fast and I wish I could relive that day over and over again. Even with venue issues, planner issues, and ever other issue you can think of; the day was nothing less than perfect. We are still getting compliments on how wonderful and beautiful our wedding was. The day could not have gone any better and the weather was PERFECT! I can’t wait to get all of our pictures back and do a written re-cap with pictures!!

Now with the wedding over and schooling finally over, my main focuses are our growing baby and finding a full-time job. I am currently working in IT now but essentially on loan from the hospital. I make substantially less than everyone in the office and while I have a foot in the door, I am ready to make more money… and my growing family and I need it. We go for an OB appointment on Friday and we should hear our baby’s heartbeat for the first time! Hopefully our next appointment will be to find out the gender of our little one. We are so thrilled about becoming parents and it seems that December can’t come soon enough!

Our plans are to get me a new car after the first of next year, we will need a SUV of some kind to have room for baby and our pups, and hopefully no later than 2016 we will buy us a house. So needless to say, we need me to get a higher paying job ASAP!!!

I will start back writing more frequently and will fill you in on all wedding festivities soon! Until then…

I am desperately trying to sleep and it is not working!! I have so much going through my head and my brain won’t seem to shut off. I have to sleep without Ryan and trust me…. it’s killing me. I can’t get comfortable, is too hot, I am itchy, sciatic nerve pain thanks to baby G, and the list goes on.

Our rehearsal went nicely; dinner was amazing and Ryans’ grooms cake was perfect. He is a 49ers fan soi knew that’s what I wanted to do, but I also wanted to include our puppies. They are our children and we love them as such… those two are just a big part of our lives. I think it turned out AMAZING and it tadded just as good .

I will go into more detail when I am at the computer! I guess I will try to get some sleep… I have a long day ahead of me!!!

well the short countdown has begun! I can actually say that I am DONE with school and will be getting my diploma next week after some mini honeymoon days. I ended up will 3 B’s and the 4 A’s this semester (not like I honestly care, I just wanted to pass) and am so thankful to have such a wonderful man who helped me throughout school and planning this wedding. We have had a long hard road to our wedding day but we are praying that it is all going to turn out for the best. Both of us are praying that drama going on in our personal lives right now is not going to show it’s head on our day. That may be our biggest stress right now, but it will all work out the way it should. I know our day is going to be perfect and at the end of the day I am going to be married to the love of my life!

Ryan and I have worked hard and enlisted help to finish all of our wedding projects, all that is left to do is pack and leave! I had one more pallet that I was planning on using that needed to be painted. I would love to sell it afterwards… but unless I sell it to another girl with my last name and Ryan’s last name it won’t happen. Here is the finished product.

We are going to post this beside the road to help navigate our guests. None of our guests are familiar with the area and I feel like everyone will need a little assistance. We have also been hard at work painting wine bottles to use as table numbers. Granted we are not having assigned seats; it will serve as wait by table type thing. Then the wait won’t seem as long… I hope. We haven’t written the numbers on them yet, but I think they turned out really good. I am proud of them.

Ryan and his cousin Laura worked long and hard on folding and gluing our programs together and they turned out really awesome. I had Ryan call the print shop about getting them printed and it would have cost us over $200, instead we printed them at my work office and only spent about $30 total. I am sure they would have looked much better done by a professional, but I think they look awesome and it saved us quite a few dollars! Ryan, my parents, and I are all so far over budget… we cannot afford to spend a ridiculous amount of money on programs that are going to be thrown away after 20 minutes.

All of these DIY projects were done Monday and yesterday. Today I had so much to do just to get ready for the wedding. I have been up since 6 am and have been literally running all day long! I had a baby doctor appointment at 10:45 and went and paid for my bustle on my dress and picked it up. I then brought my dress home, got my nails done, and went to the hair salon. Tomorrow is going to be another busy day of running. I have to get a spray tan first thing in the morning, Ryan and I have to pick up 4 out of 7 suits, and meet my dad to give him these big DIY pieces since he has a truck and is taking them to the venue. I also have to drop our luggage off at my parents beach house, pick up my veil and make copies of pictures. I am ready for all of this running to be over!

Tonight we really did not have a lot of DIY things to do. Ryan did write on the chalkboard sign that one of his nieces will be carrying down the aisle and I wrote our dinner menu on an old window we bought just for that reason. I think they bought turned out awesome and I am glad to finally be done making things!!!

I am very excited for our wedding day. I cannot even begin to describe what I am excited about most! I am just ready for it all!!! Only 2 more days before I become Mrs. Green!!! I will not be back until after the wedding, but expect a play by play and PLENTY of wedding pictures!

as time is winding down, Ryan and I have final details, final small DIY projects, and many many mason jars left to wash. I am at the point that I have to decide if I want a bustle on my dress, if so I have one final fitting left to do. I went to tried on my dress last week just to make sure it still fit and it still fits like a dream! I also have to decide if I want to wear my mothers veil and see if it can be cleaned and altered in time for the wedding. I would LOVE to wear it… I just hope it can all be done in time.

We are also waiting on a few important things to come in the mail and I am PRAYING will be here on time. I hope everything will work out like we want. I have been working on one of our DIY projects today and finally have finished and have one coat of sealer on it. I used a pallet to make a sign for our guests, we want our guests to feel like family and not like they need to pick a side. I think it turned out good, I am very happy with it! It’s a little shiny, only because it has wet polycrylic on it in this picture. The polycrylic will help seal these vinyl decals to wood so they will not come off!! I think it looks good, maybe not pinterest good, but amateur wanna be pinterest good!

We have another pallet that I am actually going to paint on and it will serve as a sign to direct our guests. Our wedding venue is literally in the middle of no where. GPS will take you exactly to our venue, but the long way. A short dirt road will get you there much quicker and I will try to help them out as much as possible!! I will get started on it tomorrow and post a picture when I am done.

We are getting excited that we are getting so close to the big day! I am just ready to call my wonderful man of 4 years, my husband. And we are praying that everything will go just as it is suppose to.

Have you ever had a secret so exciting that you just want to run and tell everyone but you know you can’t?? That has been me for the last 6 weeks. I have had to catch myself so I don’t blurt it out to the world! After many weeks of having to keep quiet and ready to burst at the seams, I am finally ready to tell our secret!

Ryan and I are expecting our first baby!!!!!! We are over the moon excited and cannot wait for this journey in our lives. We had our first ultrasound yesterday and we were really wanting to wait until after the wedding, but that is just WAYYYY too long to wait! We are 8 weeks along and our little bundle of joy is due December 5th, 2014. Our closest friends and family have known since we have and have done excellent with keeping our secret, but so many were glad that they could tell people too! So as if I am not stressed enough with this wedding alone, I have finals starting this week and having to control my stress for the baby.

I am glad to finally be able to let y’all know and to share this new journey with you. Though I will save all the details for after the wedding!!! Here’s the first picture of out little pecan!

After many calls and times of wanting to pull my hair out we have another venue. It is not only booked but paid in full. I am looking forward to all of this being over and done with. I am excited about getting married and committing myself to Ryan for the rest of my life… but this road has been very very bumpy. I feel sorry for the brides before me that had less time than me to find another venue. I am not sure what I would have done if I had less than 30 days!

We ended up going with Bucksville Hall in Conway, SC. I think everything is going to turn out wonderfully. Maybe not exactly how I had envisioned, but it will all work out and I think it will be beautiful. I sent out post cards to our guests informing them of the venue change. I included a map, the venue’s address, and my wedding planners number to call if they get lost. I made them myself… or else they could have never been ready in time to actually reach our guests. I think they turned out okay, not how I would like… but I never claimed to have mad artistic skills.

On a brighter note, I am 24 days away from marrying the man of my dreams and the reality is setting in! We are working on getting our final head counts, final payments, finalizing music, and wedding day time line. It is becoming real that I will soon be someones wife! Not only that but I only have 20 days left until I am officially graduated and DONE with school! I am looking forward to getting into a new job position and that equals more money for Ryan and I… since I make next to nothing!! But, you have to start somewhere! We are looking forward to married life and hopefully buying our first house after the first of next year. A lot of big things are coming our way and we couldn’t be more excited!